GA-GORIB According to the myth of the Khoikhoi of South Africa, Ga-gorib is a fearsome monster who tricks the living into falling into his bottomless pit. Ga-gorib perches on the edge of this chasm and taunts passers into challenging him. He offers them a stone to throw at him, to try to topple him into the pit. But the rocks always rebound and kill the thrower instead. Their bodies fall into the depths, much to Ga-gorib’s delight. He has been compared to the Christian SATAN, who likewise tries to cause people to become ensnared in his spiritual traps.
Ga-gorib is eventually bested by Heitsi-Eibib, a brave and wise warrior who outsmarts the fiend and forces him into the underworld forever. After defeating Ga-gorib, Heitsi-Eibib is granted the power to return from the grave.
This story is likened to the Christian tale of the battle between Christ and Satan. Satan, like Ga-gorib, lures humans into sin and thus into his kingdom of everlasting torment. But Christ eventually defeats the DEMON and then rises from the dead.
GAMES Many games, both ancient and modern, have been connected to the underworld. The earliest American example of these is the Ouija (or Witchboard) patented in 1892. The Ouija is a printed board that shows the alphabet and the words yes and no. To play, at least two participants must guide a pointed “needle” to spell out answers to a player’s questions. Originally designed as a toy to be used in parlor games, self-proclaimed psychics began claiming that it was in fact a tool for contacting the dead. The idea took hold, and Ouija boards have since been used to seek all sorts of information from the dead, including the secrets of the damned.
One of the most popular netherworld games of recent times is the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons (also known as D & D). D & D was copyrighted in 1974 by its creators Gary Gygaz and Dave Arneson. It was sold in the form of a bare-bones instruction booklet listing basic rules of play. From this early, unpolished version, D & D went through many revisions and clarifications on its way to becoming a nationwide craze. It defined the concept of the role-playing game, where each player assumes the identity of a specific character for the contest’s duration. Each player’s strengths, abilities, and weaknesses in negotiating the match are determined by his or her assigned role. Movement through the dungeon—a hellish underground maze infested with demonic creatures—is accomplished through miniature figures of the different entities, which include DEMONS, wizards, and witches. Players can move between the “upper” and “lower” worlds of mortals and spirits.
D & D became phenomenally popular during the 1970s, especially among college students. The fad generated several magazines dedicated entirely to the rules, history, and champions of the fantasy game. But D & D had a dark side, too. It was condemned by many clergy members for its “diabolic” nature, “glorification” of the underworld, and “endorsement of witchcraft.” D & D was even linked to a grisly murder in the early 1980s. The killers admitted to using the game as a pattern for their CRIME. This bad press, and the inevitable loss of its novelty, began the slow decline of what had been called “the ultimate in role-playing competitions.”
A similar game, this one based on classic horror writer H. P. Lovecraft’s SHORT STORY “Call of Cthulhu,” gained popularity during the early 1980s. Its advertisements promised “unearthly effects from other dimensions” that could “drive anyone stark raving mad.” Players were invited to “tread dark trails in search of eldritch horrors.” Accessories were also available, such as “scratch’n’sniff” monster identification kits and the Cthulhu Monster Flash Cards.
Following the story’s basic premise, the game sends players down “dark, foul-smelling holes” to battle “Minions of the Old Ones” and “eldritch horrors.” Their only protection is holy water and “incantations for the Banishment of the Burrowers Beneath.” These odd passageways are actually gateways to infernal regions of mutant monsters and bloodthirsty fiends. Characters such as GHOULS, serpent men, and “nightgaunts” attack and obstruct the players’ progress. The object of the game is to conquer these demons and escape unharmed.
Hell has also made its way into one of the biggest trends of the early 1990s: POGs. These small cardboard circles are used in a competition similar to marbles, with the winner of each match collecting the pieces he or she has conquered. The paper game tokens are decorated with a variety of images, including symbols of the underworld. One POG shows a flame-enveloped DEVIL below the caption, “He loves you not!” Another offers a stylized CHARON ferrying skeletons to HADES, the underworld of Greek myth. And skulls, bones, pitchforks, and other infernal IMAGERY adorn scores of the cardboard chips.
The underworld is also the setting for a vast variety of COMPUTER GAMES. These sojourns to hell offer players the opportunity to take the ultimate risk and flirt with damnation via sophisticated electronics.
GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS, THE Artist HIERONYMUS BOSCH startled both art critics and religious leaders with The Garden of Earthly Delights, painted in the early 1500s. Unlike traditional interpretations of Christian themes, Bosch’s composition mingles surreal images, striking colors, and innovative images into his interpretation of humanity’s evil. It remains one of the most imaginative portrayals of hell in Western art.
The work is done in three separate panels: the first showing the Garden of Eden, the second depicting the corruption of humanity, and the last denoting the horrors of hell. The Garden of Earthly Delights illustrates the progression from innocence to damnation. It is exceptional in its nightmarish concepts of sin and anguish. Bosch uses a style of artistry—similar to modern surrealism—that is centuries ahead of its time. The result is a surprising and unsettling composition that stirs the soul as well as the senses.
Bosch’s work shows that trouble is brewing even in Eden. The first panel depicts God presenting the innocent Eve to her husband, yet the unsettling image of a sinister cat gnawing on a dead mouse indicates that darkness and death are lurking close by, waiting to strike. In the center panel, every transgression from adultery to murder is graphically portrayed in an explosion of odd scenes. Naked soldiers ride bulls, savage fish devour humans, and huge winged rats prey on fallen women.
The depiction of hell is equally surreal. Unlike the first two panels, which are rich with bright colors, the illustration of the underworld is set against a black background. SATAN, at the center, is a sad-faced giant with an eggshell body and tree trunks for legs. Across a glowing river of molten pitch is a city in flames. A dark DEMON beats a screaming man with a chessboard while a huge rabbit chews on the feet of a faceless woman. In the foreground, Bosch offers a huge pair of human ears guiding an enormous knife on an underworld attack. Throughout hell, blades, swords, and hooks are used to antagonize the damned. These figures are interspersed with amorous pigs, ravenous beetles, and birds that eat (and defecate) sinners.
The Garden of Earthly Delights is a masterpiece of confusion and terror, showing incredible imagination and creativity in portraying the agonies of CHRISTIAN HELL. Bosch’s work is a stunning accomplishment in supernatural interpretation.
GARM Garm is the guardian of the underworld according to Norse mythology. He is similar to the Greek CERBERUS, a vicious beast who protects the entrance to HADES. Garm is described in the ancient epic Prose Edda as a fierce beast who will be loosed at the end of the world. He is also likened to the Hebrew LEVIATHAN, a monster set upon devouring humans.
GATE, THE Curious children accidentally open the door to the underworld in the 1987 film The Gate. Looking for something to do while their parents are away, the restless boys find a mysterious rock with a crystal at its center in the backyard. They immediately begin digging deeper in search of more “jewels” but instead dislodge a boulder that covers a subterranean chamber teeming with fire and smoke. A flood of angry DEMONS and fiends spews up from the opening. The children must find a way to block the portal before they are pulled down into the depths of hell. With the help of ancient spells and rituals, they manage to do so just as the damned are about to attack.
GATES OF HELL (FILM) In the 1983 film Gates of Hell, set in dreary Dunwich, Massachusetts, the portal to the netherworld is inadvertently opened by a despondent priest’s suicide. When the cleric commits the ultimate sin against hope by taking his own life, he releases a powerful evil from the underworld. The DEVIL promptly begins sending his legions to New England to spread corruption and violence throughout the world.
But the damned are interested in only one thing: devouring the villagers. Hell’s flesh-eating fiends descend upon the living in droves. (The authors of Cult Flicks and Trash Picks call these graphic mutilations “gritty, blatantly gratuitous splatter.”) Only a fiery purging can close the door to the underworld and return the wicked to the depths of hell.
Other cinematic productions about passageways between hell and earth include DEVIL’S RAIN, GHOST TOWN, and THE GATE.
GATES OF HELL, THE (SCULPTURE) AUGUSTE RODIN, considered by many to be the greatest sculptor since MICHELANGELO, was commissioned by the French government in 1880 to create an ornate set of brass doors for the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris. Sculpting this composition, The Gates of Hell (the title was criticized by many at the time as being too self-important), became an obsession for Rodin for the remainder of his life. The artist spent several decades perfecting his masterpiece, which was still unfinished at the time of his death.
The images depicted in The Gates of Hell were initially inspired by Dante’s DIVINE COMEDY: THE INFERNO. But as the work progressed, the artist began including touches reminiscent of Michelangelo’s LAST JUDGMENT and Peter Paul Rubens’s THE FALL OF THE DAMNED. Rodin also relied on his extensive knowledge of anatomy, Scripture, and literature to give life to the piece.
The unfinished work includes many illustrations taken directly from the work of Dante as well as more general and traditional examples of CHRISTIAN HELL. Rodin depicts bodies twisted and contorted into odd positions to show the agonies of the damned. It also includes the famous Thinker, a seated man resting his head on his hand as he contemplates his fate. Erupting flames line the sides of the archway, creating a feeling of envelopment by scorching terror.
The Gates of Hell, dubbed the “most ambitious” artistic undertaking of the twentieth century, remains a poignant interpretation of the horrors of the damned.
GAWAMA Gawama (Gauna, Gaunab) is one of the few lords of the underworld recorded in African tales. Most African myths offer only rest, paradise, or reincarnation as options for the dead, but the San of South Africa believe in the harsh deity Gawama. He is the leader of the spirits of the dead, often referred to as the DEVIL.
Gawama collects the souls of the dead and then uses them to harass the living, who greatly fear these ghosts. The San try to prevent the GHOULS from returning to earth by placing huge boulders over their graves. There are also a number of spells and rituals that can save the living from these menacing phantasms.
Most often, the spirits of the dead appear in the form of snakes. They can attack both people and crops and are considered quite cunning and manipulative. Gawama and his armies are blamed for famine, disease, and death. His ability to haunt and harm the living makes him an especially terrifying god and his underworld home a frightening realm of utter agony.
GEHENNA Gehenna is the land of the dead recorded in ancient Hebrew texts. The word is derived from the Valley of Hinnom, a canyon just south of Jerusalem. It had been consecrated to the ancient Ammonite god Molech and was used for pagan rituals, including human sacrifice. Some legends claim that the Ammonites used to burn children alive in Gehenna. It was declared accursed by the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah and was thereafter associated with hideous death and torture.
After the Hebrews took control of Jerusalem, they converted the valley into a communal trash pit. Garbage fires raged constantly, giving off a bitter stench. The image of FIRE AND BRIMSTONE, which would later be applied to the underworld, originated here. Prophets used Gehenna as a metaphor to warn against the horrors of the afterlife, and thus the name Gehenna eventually became synonymous with hell. Patriarchs Enoch, Daniel, Ezekiel, and Isaiah all mention the place by name in their texts.
Originally, Hebrews believed that the most despicable sinners would burn for eternity in Gehenna, whereas moderately evil souls would suffer for one year and then face ANNIHILATION. Early teachings described three entrances to the underworld of Gehenna: one in the wilderness, one below the sea, and one in Jerusalem. This last entrance is located alongside the gates of paradise, so that the damned have their agony increased by seeing the pleasures of heaven. The ocean portal is often associated with LEVIATHAN, a horrible sea monster later equated with the Christian SATAN.
Gehenna appears in New Testament teachings as well. Christ uses the image of Gehenna when describing the horrors of the damned. He warns his disciples: “If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off: for it is better to enter the kingdom of Heaven maimed than to be cast whole into Gehenna with its unquenchable fire” (Mark 9:43).
Early Christian leaders expanded Gehenna to a realm with seven sections, all seething with fire yet pitch-dark. Tortures are meted out depending on the soul’s sins, with hanging, roasting, and choking on the “black smoke of death” the most common. Gehenna is filled with the “Angels of Punishment” who carry out the afterlife sentences. The suffering of the damned in Gehenna is amplified by their awareness of the joys of paradise, which, as in Hebrew tradition, is located close by.
JAHANNAM, Islamic hell, is also a derivative of the valley of Gehenna.
“GENESIS B” “Genesis B” is an adaptation of an ancient Saxon poem about the creation of hell. According to the poem, the angels were the first of God’s creations. One proud angel, LUCIFER, decides he wants to be equal to God and sets up a throne for himself in the northwest corner of heaven. (North became associated with cold and desolation; west with sunset and death). He convinces a number of his fellow angels to renounce God and worship him instead. When the Supreme Being sees this he rebukes Lucifer and his followers and tells them to stop this mutiny. But the vain creatures refuse to obey.
God then casts Lucifer and the rebellious angels out of heaven. They fall for three days and nights, their angelic power and brilliance stripped away as they descend. The rebels (mutated into despicable DEMONS) land in a place of utter darkness and despair, which came to be known as hell.
Lucifer, refusing to admit that he has sinned against God, denounces the Creator as petty and unjust. He further mocks God for planning to allow humans—crude creatures of clay and mud—into heaven. He vows to turn humans into slaves of hell instead.
Lucifer sends one of the fallen angels to Eden to tempt Adam and Eve into sinning against God. The demon craftily convinces them to disobey the Almighty, then gleefully returns to hell and brags of his accomplishment. Lucifer celebrates this victory, but his jubilation is short-lived. For God promises to send a savior to redeem humanity’s souls from eternal damnation, allowing entrance into heaven.
“Genesis B,” and its Saxon poetic origin, drew inspiration and images from REVELATION. This biblical text describes the war in heaven, the fall of Lucifer, and the LAST JUDGMENT, at which time all will be assumed into heaven or damned to the pits of hell.
GHEDE Haiti is rich with dark myths and voodoo legends, including many frightening tales about the evil Ghede. This lord of death is a tall man who wears a long black coat, black top hat, and dark glasses. He is considered a powerful DEVIL who constantly seeks the ruin of souls.
Ghede stands at the eternal crossroads through which all souls must pass upon death. He has the power to resurrect the dead and to animate zombies. One of his most frightening attributes is his ability eternally to torment the souls of corpses stolen by sorcerers. Haitians believe that only prayer and holy ritual can save them from the clutches of Ghede.
GHOST One of the biggest screen successes of 1990 was Ghost, a love story about the afterlife. The film offers an intriguing blend of romance, suspense, and supernatural fantasy. It explores the power of the human soul to love from beyond the grave and examines the dark fate of those who choose evil over good.
Ghost stars Patrick Swayze as Sam, a young banker who is killed in an apparent mugging. When his spirit refuses to leave the side of his beloved Molly (played by Demi Moore), Swayze discovers that his murder was no random event but part of a plot to steal his bank’s security codes. One of his coworkers, and a trusted friend, has engineered a complex money-laundering scheme and needs the codes to complete his illegal transfers. When the killer fails to retrieve the correct numbers, Moore becomes the hit man’s next target.
Ghost offers a fascinating interpretation of the mechanics of salvation and damnation. Good souls are absorbed into a brilliant light, but the spirits of evil people are left among the shadows to be overtaken by darkness. Visually, this is accomplished by animating oil stains, blotches, and other gloomy black spots into living DEMONS that drag the soul, screaming in agony, into hell. (Movie critic Roger Ebert calls this effect “a particularly ridiculous visitation from the demons of hell.”) Swayze tells Moore that the saved take love with them to heaven. The condemned, however, will spend eternity mired in their cruelty and hatred.
GHOST TOWN The 1988 horror film Ghost Town puts the underworld in the American West (as do the movies DEVIL’S RAIN and HIGHWAY TO HELL). However, in this western—nicknamed by critics “The Good, The Bad and The Satanic”—hell can be harrowed by a modern sheriff (played by Franc Luz) willing to take on a long-dead gunslinger to avenge the honor of the lawman’s badge. Should he defeat the outlaw, the town will be rid of its curse. But if Luz is killed, he will join his fallen comrades as a zombie in the throes of “eternal pain.”
The film begins as a mysterious woman disappears into a sandstorm, and Luz, concerned about her safety, follows her into the tempest. When the dust settles, Luz discovers that he has unwittingly entered Ghost Town, a chamber of hell populated by decaying corpses and mangled souls. Luz soon learns that he has been “chosen” to vanquish the evil by dueling his adversaries in Old West style. The restless spirit of a murdered lawman, gunned down a century ago, begs Luz to avenge him and end the curse that holds tortured souls in this dimension. Luz reluctantly agrees and forces the fiends into the depths of hell through use of his wits, virtue, and shooting skills.
GHOULS Ghouls are the children of IBLIS, the Islamic SATAN, according to Middle Eastern legend. They are fierce DEMONS who journey from hell back to earth in order to feed on human corpses. Ghouls have also been said to prey on the living if no cadavers are available. Their existence is debated by scholars, since some records indicate that Muhammad, the founder of the Muslim faith, said that these monsters are not real.
The term has been integrated into the vernacular to refer to loathsome creatures, living or deceased.
GIFT NOVELTIES Symbols of hell have made their way onto all sorts of gift novelties, ranging from refrigerator magnets to pen holders and just about everything in between. Shoppers can purchase sticky notes showing a DEMON engulfed in flames under the heading “Memo from Hell,” kitchen thermometers decorated with FIRE AND BRIMSTONE asking “Hot Enough for Ya?” and ashtrays dotted with DEVILS proclaiming “Go Ahead—We Don’t Mind the Smoke.” Also available are a variety of red-robed SATAN dolls complete with horns, pointed tails, and pitchforks.
Satan, demons, and the Grim Reaper Ankou adorn a variety of figurines and trinkets.
Other fads have introduced underworld novelties to American culture. The Dungeons and Dragons GAMES craze of the early 1980s left in its wake a myriad of demonic trinkets and toys. Novelty shops still offer statues of repulsive GHOULS, models of flame-enveloped castles, and full-color posters showing the world separated into mystic layers of wizards, witches, FAIRIES, and demons. Racks of stickers show an assortment of hellish scenes and diabolical creatures. These same illustrations adorn everything from book covers to coffee mugs. There is also a lucrative market in temporary TATTOOS of the damned: scary (but removable) body art for those unwilling to make the depth of commitment.
Images from ancient legends are another source of infernal wares. Pewter statuettes of CHARON, the ferryman of Greek myth who carries souls to HADES, CERBERUS, Hades’ ferocious guard dog, and the underworld fortress itself can be found at gift shops. Serpents, scorpions, and horned demons of infernal IMAGERY have been transformed into masks, key chains, and model kits. Candy dispensers in the shape of the Grim Reaper, Satan, and other figures of the underworld are also prevalent, especially around Halloween.
The October holiday also brings an annual parade of diabolical trinkets. Perennial favorites include cardboard cutouts of underworld scenes, demonic costumes, and ceramic fortresses of the damned. Cinematic monsters likewise have inspired a deluge of MOVIE MERCHANDISING novelties, such as Freddy Kruger makeup kits and BEETLEJUICE coloring books.
GIMOKODAN Gimokodan is the underworld of the Bagobo people of the Philippines. It lies below the earth in two sections—one reserved for warriors who die in battle, the other for everyone else. Gimokodan is not a place of suffering or punishment but is a dull, somber realm that offers little comfort. It is insufferably boring compared to the constant challenges and rewards of life. A giantess suckles the spirits of dead infants, but there is no solace for others.
On their way to Gimokodan, the dead bathe in a magic river (similar to the Greek LETHE) that washes away most memories of earthly life. This helps spirits accept the sorrow of departing the world and leaving loved ones behind. In Gimokodan, souls turn to dew during the day, then revert to astral form when darkness falls. They suffer only an eternal aching for their former, and vastly more enriching, earthly lives.
The Bagobo believe that the dead can interfere with affairs of the living and offer gifts to dead relatives to extract favors or garner protection from evil. Such offerings are thought to distract the departed from their miserable existence in Gimokodan and thus keep them from haunting those still alive. Over time, spirits in the underworld will completely forget about the living and remember only time spent in the murky land of the dead.
GISLEBERTUS The TYMPANUM RELIEF, carved above the doorway to the Cathedral in France was produced under the leadership of French sculptor Gislebertus from 1130 to 1135. It shows the LAST JUDGMENT, the event prophesied in the Christian Bible when all will be consigned to heaven or hell. Carved portrayals on this theme became a component of almost every Gothic cathedral erected in Europe during the Middle Ages. The compositions were usually situated over the church entrances so the images of salvation and damnation could serve as a constant reminder to the faithful about their ultimate fate.
Gislebertus uses images from the Bible, Christian tradition, and ancient myth to create specific portraits of the underworld and its agonies. His Last Judgment relief shows huge snakes and dragonlike fiends snatching evil souls and thrusting them into a gaping HELLMOUTH. At Christ’s left hand, DEMONS weigh the fate of souls on a scale similar to the one described in the Egyptian BOOK OF THE DEAD. Bloodthirsty DEVILS try to tip the balance in favor of evil. The faces of the damned are contorted with pain, their arms outstretched in vain supplication for comfort that will never come.
This work is significant not only in that it draws images from a number of distinct sources, but also because it is one of the first artworks of the Middle Ages that can be positively attributed to their creators. The artist, whose style is denoted by abnormally elongated human bodies and the extensive use of ruffled textures to create depth, signed his composition. Gislebertus’s work is therefore important to the study of advancements in art as well as in the evolution of underworld beliefs.
GNIPAHELLI Gnipahelli is the cave entrance to NIFLHEIM, the underworld of Germanic myth. It is a dark, foul-smelling opening that leads to the kingdom of HEL, goddess of the damned. Gnipahelli is guarded by the fierce dog GARM (a beast similar to the Greek CERBERUS). The ferocious monster is ever watching for Hermodr, the dark ferryman who brings the dead to the underworld. Garm also prevents spirits from escaping Niflheim.
GNOSTIC HELL The Gnostics (a term meaning “those who know”) are members of an early Christian cult that rejected many of Christ’s teachings, especially regarding the nature of matter. They believe that material creations are inherently evil and that existence on earth is equivalent to damnation in hell. Humanity therefore dwells in a state of damnation during life and can reach paradise only by ridding itself of all association with matter.
Gnosticism teaches that God is a distant being who has little contact with humankind. He did not make the world: This was done by the child of the fallen angel Sophia (meaning knowledge). Her son was a lower god who created the realm of human existence. People are thus flawed, and their good comes only from Sophia and her attempts at atoning for her sins. She is destined to be continually reborn, as Helen of Troy, Mary Magdalene, and other prominent women, until the end of time.
According to Gnostic belief, Jesus’ incarnation was actually a descent into the underworld. He routs the lower god’s kingdom, bringing its subjects secret knowledge, or gnosis. This enables people to attain paradise. Hell is thus the denial of union with the higher God, not a place of corporal punishment. Since on earth we are separated from God, this life is no different from existence in hell. And because the material universe (including human life) was created by a fallen god, it too is evil. Therefore everyone must pass through the “inferno” before being saved.
A manuscript from the third century, the PISTIS-SOPHIA, describes the Gnostic nature of hell. In the text, Jesus tells Mary Magdalene that the underworld is a “huge dragon” that completely surrounds the world. Inside the dragon are “twelve dungeons of horrible torment,” each containing its own overlord, a brutal DEMON who administers torture.
Christian leaders immediately condemned this teaching on several grounds. First, they rejected the concept of God as cold and aloof rather than as a loving father. Second, the hypothesis that some “lower god” had so much power over humans and their fate was illogical and baseless. Most important, Gnostic faith rendered the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ irrelevant, since his very incarnation released souls from hell.
GODKIN, GEORGE On the Other Side, an analysis of out-of-body experiences written by Marvin Ford, includes the incredible story of George Godkin, a farmer from Alberta, Canada. While suffering from a series of health problems in the mid-1940s, Godkin “died” and had a frightening vision of hell. The Godkin case is unique since it predates most modern accounts of NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES and does not involve artificial resuscitation of a “clinically dead” patient. Godkin’s vision and revival occurred without the intervention of medical techniques, drugs, or other outside stimuli.
Godkin’s health had been rapidly deteriorating, when one night he awoke to find himself in hell. He was immediately struck by a “darkness so intense that it seemed to have a pressure per square inch.” His soul was overcome with a sickening feeling of loneliness and despair. And the heat was unbearable: “Your eyeballs are so dry they feel like red hot coals in their sockets. Your tongue and lips are parched and cracked with the intense heat.… The interior of your body has a sensation of scorching hot air being forced through it.”
When the farmer revived, he had difficulty overcoming the shock and horror of his vision. Though he was able to offer a brief description of the realm’s horrors, he stressed that it would be impossible to recount adequately what he had experienced, since “the agony and loneliness of Hell cannot be expressed.” Attempts to discredit or debunk his story were unsuccessful: Godkin steadfastly stood by his account and remained unfazed by skeptics. Years later, renowned cardiologist MAURICE RAWLINGS would include Godkin’s case in To Hell and Back, an updated investigation of negative near-death experiences.
GORA-DAILENG The underworld is a dreadful place of agony according to myths of the Caroline Islanders of Micronesia. Gora-Daileng is the lord of the dead who punishes depraved souls for the wickedness of their lives. His tortures include eternally roasting spirits in an unbearably hot furnace and casting them into an endless river from which none return. He is considered so frightening to the islanders that they do not speak his name aloud, lest he think he is being summoned.
GORGIAS Fourth-century B.C. Greek philosopher PLATO offers his view of the afterlife in his drama Gorgias. In the play, Plato describes the underworld as a sort of supernatural bureaucracy where souls are evaluated and assigned according to their merits. He names the judges of the underworld: Aeacus, Rhadamanthus, and MINOS. Each has specific duties, and each man’s decisions could be appealed to a higher court. The job of these arbitrators is to review the lives of recently departed spirits and decide whether to send the souls to bliss in Elysium (paradise), to LIMBO for uncommitted spirits, or to punishment in TARTARUS, the lowest realm of the underworld of King HADES.
Plato patterns this afterlife cataloging system after his own judicial ideal exhibited in the courts of ancient Greece. His work is quite similar to Socrates’ PHAEDO, sharing the same ideas about underworld magistrates, sentencing, and punishment.
GOSPEL OF BARTHOLOMEW One of the earliest accounts of Christ’s HARROWING OF HELL is found in the Gospel of Bartholomew, written during the first century after Jesus’ death. The work is an apocrypha and was immediately rejected by Christian leaders who did not consider it to be a product of divine inspiration. But the Gospel of Bartholomew became popular among early followers of Christ since it offers details on his raid on the underworld and other subjects not covered in the four Gospels sanctioned by the church.
The Gospel of Bartholomew explains that SATAN and his rebel angels have become ugly fiends who torture souls in the underworld. They inflict pain but are themselves suffering from their disunion with God. When Christ descends into hell after his death on Good Friday, the DEMONS are infuriated that some souls are being redeemed while they are left to writhe in despair. Satan shouts that the harrowing is unfair, but Christ rebukes him. The dusty underworld is emptied of the saved, and the dark angels are left seething in anger, cursing their fate, and envying the lowly creatures who have been taken up to paradise.
This account was eventually supplanted by the GOSPEL OF NICODEMUS, a later apocrypha that provides much more lavish details on hell and the release of the patriarchs.
GOSPEL OF NICODEMUS The Christian apocrypha Gospel of Nicodemus includes a lengthy description of Christ’s trial before Pontius Pilate, death on the cross, and HARROWING OF HELL. Records of the first printed copy date to the sixth century; however, the Gospel of Nicodemus had been circulated orally for decades—perhaps even centuries—by the first Christians. The text (supposedly dictated by two deceased sons of Simeon who witnessed the underworld events) is not considered “the divinely inspired word of God” by church authorities and has thus been excluded from the Bible and from Christian teaching.
In the Gospel of Nicodemus, the underworld is a subterranean prison of sorrow but without corporal punishment. After his crucifixion, Christ storms the gates of hell in order to redeem the souls of the just, shouting the battle cry, “Hell, I am your sting!” SATAN, ruler of the underworld, plots to seize and enslave Christ in the inferno, believing that he has already conquered God’s son by having had him tortured and crucified. Christ bursts through in an explosion of light, shouting, “Let the King of Glory in!” He wrestles Satan into submission, binds him in fiery chains, then shepherds the saved to heaven. The deceased “authors” of the Gospel of Nicodemus describe their experience being delivered from SHEOL (the underworld of Hebrew texts): “We were holden in Hell in darkness and the shadow of death; suddenly there shone upon us a great light, and Hell did tremble and the gates of death.”
The Gospel of Nicodemus also foretells an apocalyptic battle between Christ and Satan that will take place at the end of the world. Christ promises to force the fiend into “eternal darkness” after the LAST JUDGMENT and chain him in hell where he will be unable to harm others. This is the essence of Satan’s final agony: He was first banished to hell because of his pride, wanting to be as powerful and as important as God. But the DEVIL will ultimately be reduced to an insignificant prisoner immobilized at the bottom of the underworld.
Greek mythological King HADES is also mentioned in this mysterious text. He is the personification of death and shares rule of the underworld with Satan. But Christ defeats him, too, symbolizing the fact that humanity need no longer fear death, for there is life eternal in Christ.
GOTTSCHALK Gottschalk, a simple German peasant, claimed to have seen a vision of hell in 1189. After suffering from fever and sickness, Gottschalk went into a coma that lasted for five days. When he awakened, he told of a ghastly visit to the underworld.
According to his story, Gottschalk was greeted by angels who led him to a huge tree covered with shoes. Beyond the tree was a thorny desert, but only those who had been kind and pure during their lives were allowed to take a pair of shoes from the tree. The rest had to cross the field of thorns barefoot, their flesh tearing and bleeding with every step.
After crossing this treacherous bramble, the dead must navigate a river filled with razor-sharp blades. The angels told Gottschalk that this gory gauntlet continued on for miles into the horizon. Souls of evildoers were then set upon a road that led nowhere, lined with an endless array of torturous obstacles. The damned spend eternity in this horrid maze.
Gottschalk awakened and recounted his tale to the awestruck villagers, who agreed that this vision was a divine warning about their wickedness. Many who heard the story promised to show charity to others and to spread the word of Gottschalk’s strange journey.
GOWDIE, ISOBEL Isobel Gowdie (c. 1610–1665) was a beautiful, witty, and intelligent Scottish farm wife who created quite a controversy with her unprompted confessions of demonic activities. Bored with her monotonous life on the farm, she went into town one sunny spring day and announced that she had been practicing witchcraft for more than a decade. Gowdie further shocked the townspeople with her graphic descriptions of perverse sexual encounters with the DEVIL, claiming to have enjoyed frequent intercourse with the fiend despite great pain caused by his icy, gigantic phallus.
But Gowdie’s contact with SATAN was not limited to intimate coven rituals. The self-proclaimed witch also bragged that she had visited hell as the devil’s guest. During April and May of 1662, Gowdie repeated her incredible story on four separate occasions without once contradicting herself. Officials had little choice but to accept her story as genuine.
Gowdie described numerous Satanic rituals, including a ceremony in which she was baptized in her own blood. ART TODAY
According to her account, Gowdie was approached by Satan and invited to participate in a local coven of witches. She accepted, proving her allegiance to him by renouncing her Christian name in a black baptism and taking Janet as her coven name. She began practicing witchcraft in secret, participating in a variety of Satanic activities such as orgies, ritual slayings, shape-shifting, and black masses. Gowdie eventually consummated her union with Satan in a violent sexual encounter performed before the coven faithful.
Satisfied with her loyalty, the devil then took her to the underworld to show her his legions. She referred to this realm as the “Land of FAIRIES” and the infernal tribes as “hosts of Hell.” Gowdie described hell as a dark region located below the surface of the earth. She was flown there by an enchanted horse that breathed fire and reeked with the stench of the grave. According to Gowdie: “The hills opened up … there were elf-bulls routing and skoyling up and down there, and it affrighted me.… They were making elf-bolts.… The devil sharps them with his own hand.”
Satan reassured her that she would not be harmed as long as she stayed by his side. An elf-bull handed her a cache of the demonic weapons he had been forging, and Satan showed her how to shoot them using her thumb as a bow. Gowdie and Satan then went “hunting,” killing Christians on the rural hillsides before the horse brought her back to her farm.
Gowdie’s confession of Satanism was remarkably extensive. She offered numerous accounts of other evil activities, even naming fellow townspeople as members of the coven. Her case was unique, since unlike most “witches,” Gowdie did not confess under torture but came forward of her own accord. Her story was neither corroborated nor dispelled by any of the alleged witches she named as coven members, since none of those she fingered shared her desire to espouse such shocking escapades.
Some historians believe that Gowdie was chosen by the coven to serve as a human sacrifice, since her confession would almost certainly result in a bloody execution. Others argue that Gowdie had simply tired of her dim-witted husband and the boredom of country life and was seeking attention and amusement. Some contend that her dreary lifestyle had driven her mad. In any case, there are no records of what happened to Gowdie after her startling admissions. It is assumed that she was executed for her blasphemous activities.
GREAT DIVORCE, THE Author C. S. Lewis, one of the most brilliant Christian intellectuals of the twentieth century, offers an imaginative and compelling account of the afterlife in his The Great Divorce. A professor of medieval and Renaissance literature at Cambridge University, Lewis has addressed the question of the nature of heaven and hell in a number of fiction and nonfiction works, including the novel THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS and the treatise The Problem of Pain. He is also the author of the classic series The Chronicles of Narnia and the Space Trilogy.
Lewis’s central theme in The Great Divorce is that how and where a person spends eternity is entirely up to him or her. He calls this an “either-or” choice of two very different options. Those who choose hell can never have heaven. And those who select heaven must cast away “even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of hell.” The Great Divorce illustrates examples of both alternatives.
The Great Divorce was written as a refutation of WILLIAM BLAKE’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Lewis considers Blake’s thesis—that good and evil are temporary states rather than qualities of the soul—to be “a disastrous error.” For Lewis, evil can never develop into good; it can be eradicated only by finding the error and taking specific, targeted actions to correct it. Thus heaven and hell are irreconcilably separated realms.
The Great Divorce begins at an eternal “bus stop” in a gray, rainy town of perpetual dusk. The village is lined with dreary shops, decrepit apartments, and bleak warehouses. There are no people visible anywhere in the area except in the bus line. As they wait, the prospective riders quarrel among themselves over their places in line, how many people can fit on the bus, even whether they want to make the trip at all. By the time the vehicle arrives, many have either left or been forced out of the line. The rest board the bus, which has plenty of room to spare.
During the ride, the narrator learns much about his fellow passengers. One, declaring himself a “genius” unappreciated by his contemporaries, has committed suicide after failing to gain the reputation as a great poet he felt he richly deserved. Another claims that the “gray town” is in fact a “nursery” for cultivating creativity now that material things are gone, rather than a desolate place of perpetual gloom. Throughout the ride, those on the bus erupt into knife- and gunfights, yet no one is injured. They continually bicker over opening windows, talking too loudly, and a host of other petty grievances.
The narrator notices that the bus is not moving forward, but upward. It glides smoothly hundreds of miles above the misty town of endless rain. Seeing the place from above, the narrator cannot believe how large it is. He is promptly informed that the reason for the town’s gargantuan size and its seeming lack of inhabitants is that the residents of the gray town cannot get along and are forever moving farther out to get away from one another. (Simply imagining a house makes the structure appear, although it is in fact a mere illusion of a house. The strongest roofs and thickest walls provide no protection from the rain.)
Since the townspeople have no real “needs,” they do not have to interact and so choose to withdraw from one another. “Gray town” is now a million miles across, with most of its streets empty as inhabitants are continually quarreling, moving away, and then quarreling with the new neighbors in an ongoing cycle of petulance.
When the bus arrives at its destination, a beautiful land of green mountains, blue rivers, and mountains of pearl, the narrator notices that the bus riders—including himself—are no more than opaque shadows. They are “man-shaped stains on the brightness of the air.” Several of his fellow passengers immediately return to the bus, deciding that they want nothing to do with this realm. Others ask the driver when they must return to the gray town, and he replies they may stay as long as they like; the choice is theirs to make.
Suddenly a great crowd of “solid people” approaches, each drawn to a specific new arrival. There are many scenes of greetings and reunions of friends and family members and even of offenders coming to seek forgiveness from those they have injured in life. The welcoming party, all residents of heaven, explains that each has been sent as a guide to bring one passenger across the fields to the mountains of paradise. It would be a long, difficult journey, but once arrived the former inhabitants of hell would become substantive and would join the community of paradise. All that is required is that the newcomers agree to make the trip.
However, many of the gray town visitors find this offer unacceptable. One refuses to go with his appointed guardian, angry that his former employee has been enjoying heaven while he, a “decent man,” has been dwelling in hell for so many years. The rider declares, “I’d rather be damned than go along with you!” Another reluctant visitor rejects the idea that he has been in hell and that this is heaven, clinging to his “intellectual” convictions rather than accepting “superstitious” beliefs about sin and retribution. When the citizen of heaven asks, incredulous, if his friend does he not realize he has been in hell, the apostate laughs, “My dear boy, that is so like you.” Unwilling to repent his “sins of the intellect,” the damned man cheerfully tells his guide that a superior mind must forever be open to new concepts, theories, and interpretations. Thus he chooses to return to the gray town where he can bask in his own cerebral eminence rather than remain in a paradise where he must submit to God’s rules.
The narrator encounters a number of similar situations. He sees a mother who had spent years begrudging the death of her young son refuse to enter heaven because she does not want to dwell with a God who would “steal” her child. A man who still clings to a score of petty complaints against his gentle wife is devoured by the personification of his own cruelty. And a manipulative women demands that if she remain in this bright land she be given “a free hand” to whip her husband—now enjoying the delights of heaven—into shape. When this request is denied, the wife’s rage literally explodes, and her ghost disappears.
In addition to these failures, there are souls who put aside their anger, pride, or whatever sin has kept them suffering in the underworld and choose to remain in paradise. The difference between these spirits and their return-trip counterparts is the willingness to surrender the self in order to find complete fulfillment. This is the irony of the afterlife: Those who empty themselves shall be filled, while those who hold fast to their selfishness will have no room in their souls for eternal joy.
This is the main point of Lewis’s The Great Divorce: Salvation can occur only when each person acknowledges the errors of his or her life, admits that he or she has been wrong, and asks for forgiveness. Those who refuse are condemned to return to the gray town, hell, and steep in their pride and shallowness. Thus damnation is not a sentence imposed by God but a free choice made by horribly misguided humans.
GREETING CARDS The abode of the damned has made its way onto greeting cards celebrating a variety of occasions. These include cards about growing older, taking a new job, moving, getting married, and having children. One greeting for the bride- or groom-to-be reads, “Marriage is out of this world,” and offers a full-color illustration of hell—complete with fire, torture devices, and a grinning DEVIL—on the inside. Another infernal take on married life claims, “Hell hath no fury … like a woman who gets a vacuum cleaner for her anniversary.”
Greeting and novelty giant Hallmark produces many products with hellish allusions. An especially intriguing card with broad appeal for graduating seniors, newlyweds, and aging baby boomers states simply, “You are now entering the TWILIGHT ZONE,” printed above the classic television series’s logo and graphics. Hallmark also distributes a variety of notepads, stickers, and other GIFT NOVELTIES displaying playful DEMONS, smirking devils, and other underworld IMAGERY.
There are also numerous “from hell” cards featuring everything from birthdays to neighbors to pets from the infernal region. A feline, poised above a city in flames, accompanies the legend, “Happy Birthday from Me … and the Cat from Hell.” Another, spoofing the pursuits of retirees, shows the “Winnebego from Hell” spewing smoke and sporting BUMPER STICKERS from “World’s Largest Ball of Wax” and “Slippery Sludge Beach.” New parents might receive the “Baby from Hell” card, warning Mom and Dad to be careful, that new little critter “leaks noxious fluids from both ends.”
A 1911 greeting card depicts Satan tossing souls into hellfire. ART TODAY
The Athena International company offers an entire line of cards inspired by hell entitled “Little Devils.” Each features a smiling, red-suited demon with horns and pointed tail along with an inscription appropriate for the occasion. One has the little fiend set against a murky orange background of dark cliffs saying, “I’m no angel … but I miss you like the devil.” Another boasts, “I may be a devil … but I thank Heaven for you,” as the trademark demon stands amid the flames of hell.
GREGORY I Pope Gregory I (c. 540–604), also known as Gregory the Great, wrote extensively on the nature of SATAN and the underworld. He believed (as did ST. AUGUSTINE) that the ultimate suffering of hell is disunion with God and the aching to be in his magnificent presence. Those in the underworld—the fallen angels and souls of the damned—are mired in misery from being forever blinded to the goodness of God.
The first monk to become a pope of the Roman Catholic church, Gregory was well respected for his knowledge and wisdom, eventually earning the title doctor of the church. In his four-volume Dialogues, written around 590, Gregory recounts a number of visions of hell experienced by various monks, nobles, and townspeople. The work offers details on both the geography of the underworld and its grotesque facilities.
One account features the supernatural experience of a local soldier. As the man slipped in and out of consciousness, he suddenly found himself on the bank of a fetid river of excrement, which gave off an “intolerable stench.” A narrow bridge spanned the river, but only the just and pure could cross to the other side. On the opposite bank were sparkling mansions and pristine knolls. The damned longed to reach them, but DEMONS emerged from the river of pitch to seize any sinner who presumed to make the passage.
The soldier, unable to resist the distant beauty, started across the bridge but immediately slipped and was grabbed by grisly monsters. Just before he sank, a contingent of angels lifted him up, restoring him to life and reviving his body.
Another story in Dialogues tells of a corrupt monk who was damned for breaking his vows and abusing his position. Sent to hell for his sins, he wandered the vast expanse of the barren wasteland, unable to find rest. He was terrified to see several of his fellow monks writhing in everlasting torment and begged for another chance to redeem himself. An angel heard his prayer, took pity on him, and returned him to the land of the living on the condition that he change his ways.
There are numerous examples of infernal IMAGERY contained in Gregory’s works. All the underworld stories recounted in Dialogues include fire and perilous bridges and most feature treacherous creatures, tortures, despair, and a putrid stench. Gregory suggests that this type of VISION LITERATURE serves as an important reminder to the faithful about the reality of hell and as a powerful warning against provoking the wrath of God.
GREGORY OF TOURS Gregory of Tours (539–594), a colleague and contemporary of Gregory I, also wrote several texts of VISION LITERATURE. His works include histories of the lives of the early saints and of their supernatural powers. But the most powerful of Gregory’s works is his History of the Franks, which features a grisly description of what hell has in store for immoral clerics.
In the History of the Franks, Gregory of Tours recounts a vision of hell related to him by SUNNIULF, a monk of Randau. The abbot described seeing a riverside jammed with people waiting to cross an impossibly narrow bridge. Flames leaped from the foul-smelling river at the throng of souls huddling by the bank. Sunniulf witnesses what happens to clerics in the afterlife: The just cross without difficulty to the paradise on the other side, but those who were lax or corrupt in their duties sink in the black ooze. The depth to which they descend corresponds to their degree of evil: Some are in up to their waists, others up to their necks. Horrified, Sunniulf is restored to life after promising to live a devout life. (Scholars believe this story is likewise recounted in Dialogues, a book of mysticism authored by GREGORY I.)
Among the poems of Gregory of Tours is an Easter composition written for Gregory I. In this celebration of the Resurrection, the author joyfully recalls Jesus’ HARROWING OF HELL, when Christ descends to the underworld to redeem the souls of the patriarchs.
GWYNN Gwynn is one of the Celtic gods of the underworld. He is a hunter who preys on souls, claiming them for ANWNN, a dark hell. Gwynn is also associated with FAIRIES, called the “hosts of hell” in Celtic literature.